E-NEWS~January 2012

The Vine Pregnancy Center will be celebrating serving the Frazier Mountain Community for 10 YEARS in 2012.  As we celebrate 2012 and 10 YEARS, we anticipate more volunteer trainings and volunteer hours to allow the center to be open more during the week.  At this time the center is open and available to meet the needs of families in our community.  Thank you to Frazier Mountain Community supporters!!  

Tuesday  10:00-12:30pm & 1:30-4:30pm
Wednesday  10:30-4:30pm
Friday  5-7pm

The hours are covered by volunteers who seek to serve families in our community.  We give thanks for each and every one of them.  Upcoming trainings will be available in 2012 in order to increase hours of availability to serve our community families.


                      Sobering Abortion Facts

     The image of God in the womb is under attack.  Abortion is allowed in 54 countries.  This makes up approximately 61 percent of the world’s population.[1]  This is humanity created in the image of God (Gen 1:26, 27).  According to the Pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York, 97 countries, about 39 percent of humankind, have abortion laws that make the destruction of our unseen neighbors in the womb illegal.[2]

            The most current national abortion statistics state that 1.21 million abortions were performed in 2005, down from 1.31 million in 2000.[3]  The Alan Guttmacher Institute reported that “from 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S.”[4]   “About half of U.S. pregnancies—more than three million each year are unintended, and by age 45, more than half of all American women will have experienced an unintended pregnancy.”[5]

            These statistics are staggering.  The destruction of the image of God in the womb not only destroys the unseen neighbor, but the neighbor that sits silently in the waiting rooms of doctors offices, of abortion clinics across the country.  “At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by age 45, and, at current rates, about one-third will have had an abortion.”[6]  In simple terms, 50 percent of American women will have a crisis pregnancy.  One in two women will face the decision whether or not to have an “unintended” child.  Each one will make a choice for life or for death.  One child out of three will lose his or her life.  The love of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Word of God, is the only hope for our seen and unseen neighbors.  The Bible teaches believers to “deliver those who are being taken away to death” (Prov 24:11).  Abortion leads not only to physical death but to spiritual death.  Saving faith in Jesus Christ births forgiveness of sins and cleansing of the conscience.  Help and hope are found in Jesus Christ alone, not only in the here and now, but for eternity.

The Vine Pregnancy Center:
Our Clients, Our Culture, Our Mission Field 

The volunteers who serve at TVPC are on the mission field. They are equipped to understand their client’s circumstances, family, friends, culture, environment, and past decisions that have ultimately lead them to TVPC. 

When a volunteer listens to a client’s situation, they are not just dealing with one specific problem. There are issues and pressures that are influencing the client. Each client that comes to TVPC enters in with a philosophy of life, religious viewpoint, pattern of thinking, behaviors, and desires and feelings which are evident in her choices. 

It is critical for the volunteer to understand the cultural condition of their client. It will tell the volunteer how to speak and counsel the client. The volunteer and the client live, breath, move and exist in the same environment and cultural community. However, the volunteer at TVPC must be equipped with a counseling method that goes beyond the culture; it must get to the heart of the matter.

Focus on the Heart is the training used to equip each volunteer. Abortion is a spiritual issue and we are commanded by Christ through the Bible to test everything in accordance with His written word, not to be conformed to this world and not to use the standards and weapons of the world in spiritual battles we face. Therefore, the volunteer is equipped with the tools to minister to the client with this counseling approach.

To volunteer contact: Jodie Zicker - TVPC 245-2002 or 201-3047/P.O. Box 2008, F.P. 93225
www.thevinepregnancycenter.org
  


E-News   Hope for the Heart from The Vine

Having walked through many valleys of loss, my heart is filled with compassion for anyone grieving the loss of their child through miscarriage, stillbirth, early infant death, or abortion. Coming alongside them, providing hope for the heart, is central. When faced with the loss of a child, it often comes down to giving thanks. Giving thanks for each day, each hour, and each heartbeat. 

Our mission is to give hope when ministering to the hearts of women facing a crisis. Recently, I wrote down some thoughts I cherish about what hope can look like in the heart of one transformed by living in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. 

My heart treasures the one and only transforming truth…Hope in Christ; He is the true healer of hearts. What can a life look like with a heart filled with hope?

Hope in the heart is…Scripture in action, lived out in a life of faith, before God and man.

Hope in the heart is…when we choose to meditate upon and believe in God’s Word over and above our own feelings, thoughts, and emotions in the midst of a sovereignly ordained circumstance.
                                 
    "But now, Lord, what do I do? My hope is in You."
                                                                 
       ~Psalm 39:7

Hope in the heart is…When we respond in our hearts, minds, and actions to our circumstances, for His glory and honor, with eternity in mind.

Hope in the heart is...When we come through the trial, we testify within our hearts, minds and actions that God’s goodness never changes today, yesterday and forever.

A resource dear to TVPC is Caleb Ministries. We use this outreach ministry providing support and encouragement to women who have faced the loss of a baby. Caleb Ministries was founded in Charlotte, NC after the stillbirth of Craig and Sandy Day’s firstborn son, Caleb, in February 1988. Sandy has authored the book Morning Will Come. This book comes alongside women with personal stories of others who have walked through low valleys, offering encouragement through such painful circumstances.